Introducing Tessley Capri!

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Prior to going into labor we had a pretty solid plan in place for lines of communication! I asked Mrs. Charlotte to handle contacting out of towners like my dad and Rachael and I asked Robyn to contact local friends. I had an open invite to anyone who wanted to be there for the big announcement once our baby was born. I LOVE that moment when we announce the sex and name and think it’d be so fun to be in the waiting room and part of that announcement experience. Maybe someday one of my friends will not find out the sex and not tell names so I can experience that excitement!!!

I’m so glad there were pics taken in the waiting room! We are so blessed to have so many people who were truly excited to meet our new baby!

I feel SUPER bad about two people. Poor Kori was up there waiting and had to leave right before everyone got to come in the room! I feel so bad she had to miss it and appreciate her being there so much. And I also feel MEGA bad about Rachael! She drove all the way down from Atlanta and didn’t make it in time for the big announcement moment!!! It meant the world to me that she came though and I was hardcore about NO SOCIAL MEDIA so she wouldn’t accidentally find out from someone else!

The only phone call I made was to my dad. I wanted to be sure to tell him and Audrey as soon as I could after birth and the staff was so great about not rushing me and I was able to talk to them both! They were excited and it made my heart happy 🙂

Everyone ready to go in and find out the news!!!

Elizabeth, again, helped us out by taking a video of the big announcement! You can watch it here! I love having the videos from each of my babies…it’s so neat to see the joy on everyone’s faces and the excitement about our little ones!

I ADORE all these group shots. I love zooming in on each of them and seeing every person’s facial expressions. Everyone it just so excited!!! Big Daddy’s face is also hilarious b/c he didn’t wear his hearing aids and couldn’t tell what all was being said so he looks not excited AT ALL but in reality it’s just because he couldn’t hear! I promise he was thrilled 🙂

Right when everyone saw her I assumed they’d know she was a girl. I mean child LOOKS like a girl for sure! I heard though that when Zach went into the waiting room he was SO PUMPED that everyone said it must be a boy. I told you…Zach was pretty open about how he wanted another son! But hearing everyone say that his excitement made them think boy made my heart happy because he was obviously SO excited about his little girl 🙂 And I love that it kinda tricked everyone too 😉

Waiting for the announcement!

Once everyone came in Zach whispered to Britt that it was a girl. I actually was going to whisper either sister or brother to her because when she said girl or boy at home practicing neither truly sounded like GIRL or BOY haha. So when she said “It’s a girl!” It sounded kinda like “it’s a GUY” so I ended up saying “It’s a girl” after her just to make sure everyone knew 😉 I think they were excited! 😉

We had NOT told the kids any of our name plans leading up to the birth. I had to whisper it to Kye so he could announce it and I knew it was going to be tricky for him. I ended up whispering it to him three times before he felt confident enough to say it out loud. Even then he still said her name is “Tessley FABREEZE” haha It was precious!

Listening to Kye sharing his sister’s name!

I love how Mr. Rusty’s face looks like he is deciding if he likes it or not 😉

Casey was the first one to hold her!

This family loves some high fives 😉

My Big Daddy!

Every baby that is born into the Parker family it is like a tradition for everyone to comment about something being “big” about the baby. I remember with Britt everyone went on and on about how “big” her feet were.Which is pretty funny b/c at a year old she was still able to wear a 6 month size shoe and I had a hard time finding anything but crib shoes for her once she was walking haha. With Tess I was interested to see what they would possibly find to call “big” because this child has NOTHING big about her! I did hear people say she has a long torso but otherwise there wasn’t anything big mentioned 😉

Big Papa was the first one to notice Tess’s GORGEOUS eye lashes!

A couple funny things did happen in the delivery room. I heard from others that Big Daddy, Mr. Rusty and Mema were all pretty hilarious in the waiting room and they didn’t disappoint in the delivery room either. Mema came to hug me before she left and I told her to come visit us in the hospital and she said “No, I’ll be busy” hahaha. It cracked me up! And Big Daddy was also hilarious. Not only about the hearing aid thing but he also told Zach he was going to leave because I wasn’t paying him any attention! Classic Big Daddy 😉

Kye came in earlier and saw this picture of Big Daddy with Tess and said “Aw! Look at Big Daddy smiling so sweetly at her!” It is SUCH a precious picture and Kye then wanted to see pictures of him with Big Daddy as a baby too. Our babies are SO blessed to have such a bond with their great grandparents!

I remember Jordan’s first picture with Britt and how AWKWARD he looked. He’s def a pro now!

Katie has been there for all three of my babies births…and Robyn has been there for the past two (we didn’t know each other when our first babies were born). I’m so thankful for both of these amazing friendships! They are the hardcore-be-there-for-you-whenever-no-matter-what type of friends 🙂

When it came time that everyone started to leave the kids passed by Tess in her little crib area and they both said “Bye Sis!” It was precious! Once they left Kye was telling everyone about her and kept saying her name was Tessie which I think is a super cute nickname for sure 🙂

Casey was both first and last to hold her (baby hog haha)

I’m so thankful to each person who was able to be there for our big announcement! Jennifer, who took the pictures for us, commented on how awesome it was to see such a big group there. I know it’s rare for so many people to come to the hospital, especially for a third baby! I know that us not finding out the sex and not telling names does make it more fun for everyone and I’m really hoping I can convince Zach not to find out next baby either! It is SUCH a great moment!!! We are truly blessed to have such amazing friends and family who love our babies!!!

Going to get some more stats from her and then they let me nurse her again once everyone left the room 🙂 Tess was happy and content the entire time!

Our first picture with our third baby 🙂

So I’m sure by now people are wanting to know WHY we chose the name Tessley Capri and how we came up with it!

Before we even started trying to conceive I told Zach I needed to find a girl name. We have SEVERAL boy names we like, but didn’t have a single girl name. I didn’t want to even try to get pregnant without having some name in mind! We had Brittlynn picked out since before we even got married and I am picky about girl names and just never have heard anything that I loved or could picture myself calling my daughter.

I actually started hunting the internet for ideas. I ended up google searching for one syllable girl names. Zach and I both like one syllable names and I knew we’d want to call her by something with one syllable (like Kye and Britt). I saw Tess on the list of names that came up and I really liked it. I could picture myself saying “Tess” and I could picture it being cute as a little girl and also an adult name too. I don’t like babyish names and try to think of names that will work both for a kid and a grown up. I thought Tess fit both! However, I didn’t know what we could use for her full first name? I like how Britt has the option of using Brittlynn and wanted something similar for our next daughter too. I know Tess is typically short for Tessa and I’m just not a big fan of names that end in the “a” sound. Random, huh?!?!

I asked Zach about Tess and he wasn’t IN LOVE but he wasn’t against it either. As I would find other names I’d add them to a list but nothing really came close to Tess. I just really, really liked it.

At the same time we also both really loved the name Capri. When we went to Italy a couple years ago we both agreed that Capri is one of our favorite places we’ve ever visited! We even talked then about how we wish capri pants weren’t a thing b/c we’d love to use it as a girl name. I played around a lot with Capri. I thought we could name her Capri and then shorten it somehow but I wasn’t crazy about calling our daughter either Ree or Pri?!?! So again, it was a name that kinda went on the back burner.

View of Capri, Italy

While we weren’t set on a girl’s name, I did feel like we had some options! Once we got pregnant I texted a good bit with Rachael and Robyn and asked for girl name suggestions. I actually told Rachael that Zach and I wished Capri wasn’t the name of a type of pants b/c we both liked it. She sent me a link to this song that I’d never heard of by Colbie Caillet. It’s called Capri and is about a woman pregnant with her daughter who she named Capri! I mean how awesome is that?!?! It’s such a pretty song and made me think that Capri could be a LEGIT name and that maybe people wouldn’t think we were crazy for using it?!?!

I kept searching for names and ended up just really always coming back to Tess. I fell more and more in love with it and went to Zach about it and we both brainstormed about ways to make it longer. Obviously we didn’t want to use “lynn” as an ending since we used it for Britt. We decided that Tessley sounded really good as a longer name! I googled it and it is a legit name, just not a very common one. (Which, of course, we prefer.) Tessley Capri just flowed so perfectly and just clicked! We both really love it and especially that the middle name does have such personal meaning to us (Avery is Britt’s middle name and honestly I don’t even really like it all that much I just needed a middle name and it worked!).

We decided to spell Tessley with the “ley” ending because it looked the best when written. I’m a fan of a “y” ending over an “lee” one and I also thought just “ly” looked too short. My maiden name ended in “ley” so I was drawn to that, naturally, over any other ending. I also like that Britt’s “lynn” ending is because my mom’s middle name is Lynn. So Tess’s “ley” ending is after my maiden name being an “ley” ending 🙂

I did make sure Zach agreed that it would be TESS from the beginning! We had always planned on calling Brittlynn BRITT from the beginning but then when she was born Zach really wanted to call her Brittlynn so now we have a combo of both. He said that it’s his daughter and if he wants to call her Tessley he will but I told him I would be making sure everyone else only called her Tess 😉

I do actually call her a combo of Tess and Tessley. So far I only use Tessley when I’m aggravated that she won’t wake up to nurse haha. The kids instantly called her Tessie which I think is an ADORABLE nick name too!

I knew Tessley Capri would get mixed reviews from people. So far everyone says they like it but of course they will tell me that to my face 😉 I truly LOVE it and so does Zach and that’s all that matters! Now if we have another girl I have NO CLUE what we will do!!!

You can look back at when we introduced Kye to the world and the meaning behind his name here!

And when we introduced Britt to the world and the meaning behind her name here!

journeyofphood

Hey Guys, I’m Emily! I’m a stay at home mom and consider parenting to be my passion. Disney is my happy place and I love making memories as a family together. I’m a big believer in transparency and share all of my real-life moments as a mother of four.

My work has been featured on Today Parenting and Chronicles of a Babywise Mom. I’m also honored to be a member of the Babywise Friendly Blog Network.

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Hey I'm Emily! I'm obsessed with all things Disney and can't resist a good deal. I am a firm believer in always being open and transparent (total "over-sharer" right here!). Parenting is my personal passion and I strive to raise my children up in the Lord and for them to look back on their childhoods' with fond, fun memories. I truly believe that life is about the journey and I want to savor every second of it!